1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a disposable lighter, and more particularly to a disposable piezoelectric lighter for not only preventing under age children from using the lighter but also enhancing the gas releasing actuation configuration of the lighter.
2. Description of Related Arts
Nowadays, both U.S. government and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission demand a safety device in every cigarette lighter including the disposable lighter to prevent an unwanted ignition accidentally or by a child. As it is known that the disposable lighter is common and relatively cheap, it is impossible to incorporate with expensive and complex safety device that highly increases the cost of the disposable lighter.
A conventional piezoelectric lighter comprises a piezoelectric unit positioned under a pusher button in such a manner that when the pusher button is pressed downwardly, the piezoelectric unit is compressed for generating piezoelectricity so as to ignite the piezoelectric lighter. The piezoelectric unit comprises an internal spring for urging an upper moving part of the piezoelectric unit in a normally upward position. The downward force applied on the moving part must be greater than a predetermined spring force of the internal spring in order to compress the piezoelectric unit to ignite the lighter.
In order to prevent the piezoelectric lighter from being, ignited by the children, a stronger internal spring that provides a greater spring force can be used such that the children do not have enough power to press the pusher button downwardly. However, the stronger internal spring may have an adverse effect on the actuation of the piezoelectric unit and leads an erroneous ignition of the piezoelectric lighter. Moreover, the piezoelectric unit has limited space for the internal spring installed thereinto. It is costly to manufacture the internal spring with a relative small size but having strong spring force and it is very difficult to physically receive and retain the strong spring in the small spring chamber of the relatively small piezoelectric unit. Moreover, it a strong spring is used, the connection configuration of the moving part of the piezoelectric unit must be changed accordingly in order to hold and secure the strong spring therein. Therefore, it is unreasonable to incorporate the internal spring with higher manufacturing cost for the disposable piezoelectric lighter.
Furthermore, not all the countries demand the childproof feature for the lighter such that it is a hassle for the manufacturer to manufacture the piezoelectric unit with strengthen internal spring for those demanded countries and the piezoelectric unit with a regular internal spring for the rest of the countries.
Accordingly, it is apparent that a kind of disposable lighter with the childproof device that can prevent the ignition of the lighter by the child while being cost effective is desired by all disposable lighter users. Related arts of which the present inventor is aware and their differences and distinctions with respect to the present invention are discussed as follows.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,582, owned by Lin, discloses a piezoelectric lighter incorporated with at least an actuator spring for contributing a second predetermined force to a total force required to operate a thumb actuator. However, such piezoelectric lighter has several drawbacks. During the ignition of the lighter, the downward force applied on the thumb button should substantially compress both the actuator spring and the internal spring of the piezoelectric unit at the same time. Due to the difference of the spring forces of the actuator spring and the internal spring, the two springs may not be compressed at the same moment. Therefore, two continuous intervals of downward force may be required to compress the actuator spring and the internal spring respectively, which leads to different operational results depending on the users.
Thus, the piezoelectric lighter must alter its original structure to fit the actuator spring installed thereinto. Accordingly, the piezoelectric lighter requires an outlet tube with a predetermined length to mount between the gas container and the outlet valve such that the actuator spring can coaxially mounted on the outlet tube. Since the outlet valve must be upwardly extended to a position closed to the flame port of the casing, the spark tip of the piezoelectric unit must also be extended to the outlet valve in order to effectively ignite the ejected gas therefrom. It is dangerous when the spark tip is close to the flame port of the casing. Moreover, the lever must be modified in order to pivotally lift up the outlet value. Furthermore, the piezoelectric lighter requires more space to install the actuator spring which is positioned on top of the piezoelectric unit, such that the size of the piezoelectric lighter must be substantially increased.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,071, owned by Yeh, discloses a piezoelectric lighter incorporated with a pressure absorbing device to provide an additional resisting force of the ignition trigger. The drawbacks of such piezoelectric lighter are the same as mentioned above such as requiring two continuous intervals of downward force may be required to ignite the lighter and more space to install the pressure absorbing device.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a disposable piezoelectric lighter which not only prevents the lighter from being ignited accidentally or by children but also enhance the gas releasing actuation of the lighter.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a disposable piezoelectric lighter, wherein the resilient element is coaxially mounted to the piezoelectric unit in such a manner that the ignition of the lighter of the present invention requires a simple single-action operation to compress the resilient element and the piezoelectric unit at the same time instead of the conventional two-continuous-interval action operation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a disposable piezoelectric lighter, wherein the lever of the lighter is incorporated with the resilient element so as to substantially reduce the length of the lever for pivotally lifting up the gas valve.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a disposable piezoelectric lighter, which does not require an additional space for installing the resilient element so as to substantially reduce the overall size of the disposable piezoelectric lighter of the present invention.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a disposable piezoelectric lighter, which does not need to alter its original structural design so as to minimize tile manufacturing cost of the present invention.
Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a disposable piezoelectric lighter, which comprises:
a casing receiving a liquefied gas storage;
a gas emitting nozzle communicating with the liquefied gas storage for controlling a flow of gas;
a gas lever, which is pivotally supported in the casing, having a lifting end extended to the gas emitting nozzle and a depressing end arranged to be pressed downwardly to pivotally lift up the lifting end for releasing the gas from the liquefied gas storage through the gas emitting nozzle;
a piezoelectric unit, which is disposed in the casing for generating piezoelectricity, comprising a base body, a plunger body, having an enlarged plunger head, upwardly extended from the base body in a vertical movable manner and an ignition tip extended to a position close to the gas emitting nozzle wherein the depressing end of the gas lever is mounted to the plunger body in such a manner that when the plunger body is depressed downwardly, the ignition tip generates sparks to ignite the gas emitted from the gas emitting nozzle;
an ignition button slidably mounted on the casing in an upwardly movable manner, wherein the ignition button is coupled with a top end of the piezoelectric unit and arranged in such a manner that when the ignition button is pushed downwardly, the plunger body of the piezoelectric unit is depressed, which drives the depressing end of the gas lever downwardly, to ignite the disposable piezoelectric lighter; and
a resilient element coaxially mounted on the plunger body and retained the depressing end of the gas lever in position, wherein the resilient element has tool ends biasing against a bottom side of the plunger head and a ceiling of the base body for applying a press resistance to the plunger body, wherein the press resistance is an additional force added to the piezoelectric unit for resisting a downwardly pressing force applied by an under age child on the ignition button while an adult is capable of pushing down the ignition button to ignite the disposable piezoelectric lighter.